Elected Officials, North Texas Clean Air Task Force and Clean Air Texas groups Support EPAs Proposed New Ozone Rule at Citizen Hearing 

We Cant Wait for Clean Air in North Texas

(Arlington, TX)  Arlington Mayor Dr. Robert Cluck, Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz,
and Texas State Representative Lon Burnam (District 90, Fort
Worth) addressed a citizens’ hearing on ozone pollution
convened by the environmental groups in the North Texas Clean
Air Task Force and the Clean Air Texas coalition at the City
Hall in Arlington, Texas. In advance of the EPA’s
March 22, 2010 deadline for public comments on a new ozone
rule, representatives of Texas environmental
groups spoke in support of a strong, health-based standard
of 60 parts per billion.

“Believe it or not, because the Dallas-Fort
Worth region violated the current ozone standard
last summer and Houston didn't, DFW is now home
to the worst smog problem in Texas,” said
Jim Schermbeck of the North Texas group Downwinders
at Risk. “That means close
to 6 million people are exposed to unhealthy air
during 'ozone season' - which is now half of the
year.
One indication of the seriousness of this problem
is the recent Cook Children's Hospital study reporting
that Tarrant County children had an asthma rate
three times the state average. Smog means more
than just trouble breathing. It means heart attacks
and strokes; it means DNA damage and lower
sperm counts.
Ozone smog is one of the largest threats to public
health North Texas faces. EPA's proposed
lower standard will help us reduce that threat.”

In January, the EPA announced its proposal for
a new National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS)
to limit ozone “smog” pollution to
60-70 parts per billion (ppb). The proposed
new ozone rule follows a unanimous recommendation
from the EPA’s Science Advisory Committee
based on 1400 scientific studies. The Committee
concluded that the current ozone standard is causing
too much harm and that a lower limit is needed
to protect public health.

"If EPA adopts a strong
new ozone standard, it means finally getting
the best available controls on major area smog
contributors such as power plants, cement kilns,
and natural gas production facilities,"
said Texas State Representative Lon Burnam who
represents Fort Worth District 90. "That's
news that should make us all breathe a little easier."

The nitrogen oxides and volatile organic emissions
that make ozone come from large industrial sources
like coal plants, refineries, and cement kilns,
cars, trucks, and construction equipment, and other
smaller though numerous sources. The Dallas-Fort
Worth region where the Arlington hearing took place
has been in violation of the Clean Air Act and
the federal NAAQS (rule) for ozone pollution from
these sources for the past twenty years. The
North Texas Clean Air Task Force has offered plans
to reduce ozone smog.

“We applaud the EPA in its
efforts to protect our health by creating stronger
standards for ground level ozone (smog),” said Molly
Rooke with Dallas Sierra Club. “Sierra
Club supports the most protective standard of 60
parts per billion. Achieving the new health-based
ozone standard will relieve asthma symptoms and
other respiratory illnesses that are aggravated
by dirty air; this new rule will save thousands
of lives every year, prevent heart attacks and
early mortality. Our children and senior
populations are especially at risk, though even
athletes struggle with air pollution effects. We
all deserve clean air; and we can't wait any longer.”

Governor Perry was invited to address the hearing
and listen to the public comments, but did not
attend nor send a representative.

“The TCEQ should prevent pollution
not permit it,” said Eva Hernandez with Sierra Club’s
Beyond Coal Campaign. “A health-based
ozone rule of 60 parts per billion will require
TCEQ to clean up the coal plants and other facilities
that have been polluting Texas air. The result
will be cleaner air for us to breathe and a new,
clean green economy.
As for concerns about costs, we are talking today
about the real health and quality of life costs
that Texans are paying out for breathing dirty
air.”

The EPA has done an analysis showing costs benefits
of clean air in the billions.

March
22, 2010 deadline for public comments
The public can email comments to the EPA at:a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov with
the reference "Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2005 -0172" in the subject line;